


i can think of something better

by ladybuginettes (stylostique)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: M/M, Nino Lahiffe Appreciation Zine, The Nino Zine, and what about it?, yes i stole the title from a hayley kiyoko song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 20:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20377432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stylostique/pseuds/ladybuginettes
Summary: He’s jolted from his dangerous train of thought by something touching his nose.It’s Chat Noir’s finger.





	i can think of something better

**Author's Note:**

> a piece for the [nino appreciation zine](https://theninozine.tumblr.com/) on tumblr! it's a free digital zine with over a hundred pages of content about our favorite turtle dude

The first time Chat Noir drops in is the day Chris gets akumatized. 

Nino’s wallowing in bed, an unpleasant mixture of guilt and fear roiling in his stomach, reconsidering every choice he’d made that day, worrying about chris, about how that akuma would have affected his baby brother when he himself couldn’t look at bubble blowers without feeling a sharp throb in his head — and he wonders whether he should turn Ladybug down the next time she comes knocking.

And then someone _ does _come knocking. It’s not Ladybug, though Nino does assume it’s her for a moment, since who else has access to his fifth floor window?

A head of fluffy blonde hair and a pair of worried green eyes answer that question pretty quick. 

Nino’s quite surprised to see Chat Noir here, since Chat didn’t seem too stoked the first time Carapace came on the scene — and even though subsequent attacks had allowed Chat to warm up to him, he still showed quite a bit of reticence and wariness which, Nino noted with no small amount of resentment, had never been shown to Rena — and Chat hadn’t ever really met _ Nino Lahiffe. _ But he lets Chat into his room all the same, he’s not about to burn the bridge which Chat is clearly trying to build here. Besides, he’s probably here to check up on Chris, anyway.

“Hey,” Chat says, and his eyes focus on Nino, glowing a breathtaking green in the dim light of Nino’s bedroom, “How’s your brother?”

“He’s fine,” Nino replies, feeling bashful all of a sudden. “He’s asleep right now though, school night and all that,” he adds, conveniently forgetting the fact that he’s also a student —and so, he thinks, is Chat — and he should be in bed too since last he checked, it was one in the morning.

Chat nods. He opens his mouth as if to say something but seems to decide against it and turns to leave, but he hesitates for a second before vaulting out of the window.

“I’m glad you’re okay. And your brother, of course. I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to you–uh, either of you. Especially since you–” Chat cuts himself off, shaking his head. “I gotta go,” he says, and Nino barely manages to catch his wrist as he moves to jump.

“Come over tomorrow night,” Nino says, “I'll get us some snacks.”

Chat smiles, and Nino thinks it might be the most beautiful smile he’s ever seen.

* * *

The second time is the night Adrien had to cancel a sleepover they’d been planning for weeks. If Nino were being honest with himself, he hadn’t expected anything better than this from Gabriel Agreste. Adrien would, for the foreseeable future, be under the thumb of his father, and despite their best efforts, it seemed like their friendship would always have to fit in the margins of Adrien’s increasingly packed schedule.

Chat knocks on Nino’s window at 11:01 pm. Nino’s wallowing (once again, it’s going to be a pattern if he’s not careful) but the sight of the cat outside his window lifts his spirits. He’s always been a fan of Chat Noir, and he’s glad that Chat seems much more fond of Nino the civilian than his frosty reception of Carapace the hero would indicate.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” Nino quips as Chat hopped off his window sill. _ Ugh, _Adrien and Chat had clearly rubbed off on him.

Chat _ beams. _It’s so bright Nino wishes his glasses had glare protection.

Chat bounds over to flop on Nino’s bed, grinning like he’s got the most delicious, juicy secret on the planet. Nino’s not really in the mood to humor him, but hey, he could maybe text Adrien some bespoke Chat memes later. And besides, Chat’s pretty cool. And pretty. 

He’s jolted from his _ dangerous _ train of thought by something touching his nose. It’s Chat Noir’s finger. Chat Noir is poking his nose with a gentleness that belies that deadly-looking claw but it’s still too close to his eyes and he’d much rather not be _ blind, _thank you very much and—

“Hey!!” Chat leaps back ten feet and smacks into Nino’s bedroom wall with a yelp. He peels himself off the wall and bounces back with a wide grin and only the slightest amount of sheepishness. He scratches the back of his neck with an almost manic expression, and something about that stands out to Nino, a fact that should be on the tip of his tongue but _ isn’t. _

“Do you want snacks?” Nino asks, because he’d stocked up on plenty anyway — his pessimism would _ not _be the reason his best friend would, in the slim likelihood he made it at all, go hungry. Chat Noir nods vigorously and Nino pulls out a large bag of chips from behind his monitor. “I was gonna get myself and my best bud some pizza, but he couldn’t make it today. Do you mind anchovies?” Nino asks, already pulling up the Pizza de Nuit website on his phone to place an order.

“This cat loves seafood, anchovies would be _ purr- _ fect!” Chat trills, bouncing up and down on Nino’s bed. Nino briefly wonders what’s gotten into him — Chat Noir’s always been pretty… _ exuberant _but not quite to the bouncing-off-walls state that he’s currently in. 

“Hey, that’s cool! Most of my friends call anchovy pizza disgusting but my best bud loves it too. I wish he could be here though, you guys would get along super…” Despite his best efforts and his genuine excitement to eat anchovy pizza with _ Chat Freaking Noir, _Nino finds his words fizzling out, constantly remembering Adrien’s careful model smile hiding his disappointment when he video called Nino to tell him he wouldn’t be able to make it.

Nino shakes his head and tries to focus on Chat Noir again, but the face Chat’s making is familiar. Eerily so. He’d just seen that expression on his screen a couple hours ago— _ don’t be stupid, there’s no way they’re the same person. _Nino shakes his head yet again, and distantly wonders if it’s possible to dislocate neck bones by plowing through his stupid thoughts.

The pizza arrives pretty soon, and as he and Chat dig in, he opens Netflix to play a movie.

“What would you like to watch?” he asks.

“Have you watched _ Fruits Basket? _ It’s my favorite show and it’s so lovely and I love the characters so much and—” That was _ exactly _what Adrien said the previous day. Down. To. The. Word. The coincidences were a little too frequent to be just that. 

Besides, if Adrien liked to drop in on Nino all the time, he _ probably _wouldn’t mind Carapace dropping in. After he stopped yelping and jumping like a spooked cat, that is.

* * *

It takes a few weeks, but soon enough an akuma which requires Carapace’s services shows up, and once they defeat the akuma, Ladybug, who’s practically dead on her feet, decides it’s far too late to take his miraculous back wherever they belong and tells him she’ll drop in first thing the next morning.

Carapace gives Chat Noir a bit of a head start, before making his way to the Agreste mansion, doubling back a couple of times when Chat whips his head back, seemingly sensing Carapace’s eyes boring holes into the back of his skull.

Sure enough, when Chat reaches Adrien’s window, he leaps through, performing a couple of flips mid-air and landing perfectly on his feet despite — as far as _ he _knows — not having an audience.

_ Typical, _Nino thinks, with no small amount of affection.

He waits as Adrien hops into the bathroom and chuckles to himself. Adrien emerges wearing — of _ course _— cat pajamas. Carapace waits till Adrien’s about to flop on his bed and knocks on the window.

He did _ not _know Adrien could jump that high.

Adrien picks up his remote to open his window, staring at Carapace with his hair all fluffy and the most dramatic spooked-cat expression Carapace has ever seen. It takes Carapace an incredible amount of self control to not laugh _ or _ruffle Adrien’s hair.

“What’s a fine hero like you doing out so late?”

Oh, so Adrien’s going to try and play it smooth, huh? Well, two could play this game.

“I was just out on the town for a night of fur-n,” Nino winces internally. There’s a very good reason he leaves the puns to Adrien, after all. But he does notice that Adrien’s eyes widen the _ slightest _bit, and he’s sure that if Adrien were transformed, his tail would be lashing.

Adrien lets out this low, whining meow, and Nino sends up a prayer to whatever deity might be up there to let him get through messing with his best bud _ without _a crack in his composure, for heaven’s sake.

“I don’t know fur!!! I don’t know cats!!! Who’s Chat Noir? I’m a clueless little boy!!” Adrien bursts out. 

Nino can’t hold it in any more. He collapses with the force of his laughter, accidentally rolling onto his shell, spinning around till he gets dizzy and can’t pull himself back up. His dizziness is certainly not helped by a little black blob — probably Chat’s kwami —whirling around his head and cackling.

He rolls around a bit, trying to get his bearings, but all that does is add more momentum to his spin and the cat kwami’s laughter. “Wayzz, shell off,” he says, falling to the floor with a sharp thud since he hadn’t accounted for the height of his shell.

Adrien comes up to stare at him while Nino grumbles and grabs at his hands to try and pull himself up to his feet.

_ “Nino?” _Adrien squeaks, seemingly in shock.

“Yeah dude, it’s me.” Nino tries to put on his most reassuring face, realizing what a shock this must be to poor, sleep-deprived Adrien. They stare at each other in silence for a minute

“So,” Nino says, taking a gamble to diffuse the tension, “got some anchovy pizza lying around?”

His question seems to do its job, since they both collapse to the floor yet again, this time with laughter. And when he sees Adrien’s face, alight with joy and humor, his hair in disarray, he thinks to himself, _ We’re gonna be just fine. _


End file.
